15th century slave trade: Nigerian writes Trump's Board of Peace, demands belated reparations for victims

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By Madu Obi

A Nigerian cleric, Dr Iwuchukwu Ezenwafo, has reopened the unresolved issue of the 15th century transatlantic slave trade that spanned between 1480 and 1870AD, urging the United States president and chairman of the Board of Peace, Donald Trump, to order for reparations in favour of the affected countries and tribes.

In the letter addressed to President Trump, Ezenwafo lamented that history is criminally silent over the devastating consequences and the indelible scars that trailed the transatlantic slave trade in which over twelve and half million souls were shipped from Africa.

"By your body language, principles and actions so far, one can obviously observe your predestined mission in The White House. For us who should know, the details of your assignment are not only prosecuted with finesse, but are accomplished with a rare grace, commitment and undaunted courage. We do hereby affirm that we've got your back standing in the gap continuously", he said.

According to him, the heinous slave transactions, first by the Portuguese and the Spaniards, followed by the British, the French, the Dutch, the Irish and other European merchants, critically depleted the workforce/human capital necessary for sundry development, entrenching pain, sorrow, loss of self worth and abject poverty.

He observed that till date, the various communities, ethnic societies, tribes and kingdoms across the entire catchment areas of the West Coast and the Central Africa, are yet to recover from the ripple effects of what he described as the carefree rampage.

He said that even after the declaration of the end of the trade by the United Kingdom in 1807 and the United States in 1808, it took over sixty years for the Royal Navy of the British empire to battle the illicit transaction to a final end.

"There's no better way to portray properly the true picture of the era, but one thing is certain, which is that sub-saharan Africa, is till today eclipsed in the shadow of a morbid inhuman transaction known as slave trade.

Today, we are looking at the beckoning necessity of healing the enormous wound by adequate restitution. We cannot continue any longer to downplay such a scary assault and capital crime as it were. The Western Powers should clearly understand that a matter of this magnitude can never, by any means, be swept under the carpet.

This kind of malfeasance, no matter how it's considered and evaluated, can only be addressed by a well thought out reparations. Going by the principles and values of the Western/modern civilization, it behoves the leadership of all the countries involved to do the needful and the ideal time is absolutely now.

With the contemporary global leadership placed on the lap of the US, a clarion call for an international conference for Reparation Fund Raising should be conscientiously made sooner than later under Your Excellency's able close watch", he said.

He added that it is on record that about 1,500 slave merchant ships were accosted and prosecuted with over 150,000 live slaves freed in the process, noting that it was not untill the year 1870 that the most vicious and heinous crime against humanity in history was finally brought to an absolute halt.

He said further: "The costly effects of this stupendous crime against mankind is unimaginable with unquantifiable implications taking into consideration the spread and duration.

In Igbo land, a major victim for instance, the communal economic structure and attendant social cohesion were battered to the extent that the enviable egalitarian societal norms and traditions were jeopardized.

The peculiar Igbo communal lifestyle and cultural values were threatened to becoming extinct. And the homegrown art and cultural heritage of the era in question were violated while treasured artefacts were serially vandalized without caution.

What naturally followed was a nasty situation where the highly cherished and revered customs/heritage jealously preserved down the centuries were trampled upon and summarily desecrated.

With such affront, the European encounter resulted in a gruesome humiliation and loss of self worth amongst the otherwise enthusiastic and proud people.

Empirically the earliest contact the Igbo had with the civilized Europeans was nothing but a bitter experience of tragedy. They simply brought death and went away with hope and life", he said.

"In a bid to deliberately uphold justice, equity and fairness, all the parties/nations involved should be subject to due self assessment and willing individual responses in terms of the measure of resource contributions.

The fund raising exercise will have to be deliberately spaced over a fairly long time to enable a maximum pooling of adequate resources that could assuage the massive losses and damages that accumulated over such a long period of about four hundred years".